Google Reportedly Hid Data Exposure of 500k Users from Public

Tech giant announces end of Google+ after nearly 500k users affected by bug

Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of people and declined to inform the public, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Between 2015 and March of this year, a bug affecting the company’s Google+ social media service gave external developers access to information such as “full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status.”

An internal memo concerning the issue, the Journal states, argued that disclosing the glitch would likely result in “immediate regulatory interest” and damage the company’s image.

The decision not to reveal the vulnerability was also reportedly shared with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The memo also warned that informing the public would draw comparisons to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, all but ensuring “Sundar will testify before Congress.”

In a statement to the Journal, Google said it opted not to disclose the exposure due to, among other things, a lack of evidence that data was misused.